Scams and frauds

Unfortunately criminals pretending to be legitimate gambling businesses may try to steal your identity or take your money. Be aware of the potential for scams and frauds and check the business you are gambling with is licensed.

Claims that you have won a prize in a lottery you did not enter

Do not send any money or personal details to anyone who says that you have won a prize or anything else in a lottery or sweepstake that you have not entered. Such claims may well be fraudulent.

You may be asked to pay a fee before the prize money is released: never respond to requests for advance payment. If you have parted with money you may wish to contact your bank and the police immediately.

Some fraudsters set out to steal identities. Do not release personal information such as your passport number, home address, telephone number or banking details to unknown organisations.

Such emails may seem professional at first glance, but look closely and you may find that text is inconsistent, there are spelling errors and the contacts page will contain mobile phone numbers.

Binary options

Binary options are a form of bet where you try to predict the outcome of events in financial markets. For example, whether a company's share price will rise or fall over a defined period (sometimes as short as 60 seconds). The use of the word 'binary' refers to the fact that there can only be two outcomes to the bet. If you predict correctly, you win the bet; if not, you lose.

We are aware of scams masquerading as binary options trading. If you are thinking of betting on binary options, you should follow this advice:

Check you are dealing with a licensed operator: Binary options operators based in Great Britain currently need to be licensed by us and must display this on their websites.

If you have any doubts about whether an operator is licensed, do not use them: An unlicensed operator is likely to be acting illegally. They will not abide by any code of conduct and have no incentive to deal fairly with you. Unlicensed operators are likely to use false names, addresses and contact numbers – they can disappear with your money and without a trace, making recovery impossible.

Online scratchcards

If you play online scratchcards, please be aware of a money-making scheme that could result in them promoting an illegal lottery. We have been alerted to plans for a system which involved customers paying a monthly fee in return for digital scratchcards.

Customers are also told they will receive more scratchcards in return for encouraging others to take part - but by doing this the player may commit the offence of promoting an illegal lottery. Anyone wanting to promote a lottery in Britain must either have a gambling licence from us or be registered with their local licensing authority.

You can check if an organisation has a gambling licence by using our licence register. If ticket sales are less than £20,000 for a single lottery, or £250,000 from aggregated lotteries, in a calendar year, then the organiser should instead be registered with their local licensing authority. You can ask the lottery organiser which local licensing authority they are registered with.